tour of Taormina

Tuesday we departed the Domus Mariae around 9am for a full day trip to the hilltop town of Taormina.  Melissa and I had begun spending a lot of time together and sat with one another on every bus ride - usually finding some comfortable position in each other’s arms or laps in which we could get the sleep we so desperately needed.

Taormina is spectacular; it was the best day yet!  The views were unbelievable.  According to our guide, we were approximately 750 feet above sea level.  We could see Mt. Etna “milking” in the distance, as well as the bay of Naxos and even the mainland of Italy.  One of the sites we toured was another Greek theater.  The Romans had later renovated it, so a combination of styles and materials can be observed.

  Constructed around the third century BC, the theater is the second largest Greek “room” in Sicily.  The three most important elements in the design of the Greek-Roman Theater are the skené (scenic wall or backdrop behind the stage, which also served as the changing area for the actors), the orchestra (the space in front of the stage where the Greek chorus would perform), and the cavea (subterranean cells used to confine wild animals until it was time for their combat).  45 steps separate the five different seating sections.  The theater can accommodate a total of 5400 people.

Following the tour, Melissa, Amy, Carl, and I went out to lunch in a inviting little restaurant with one open wall overlooking the town.  We each had a personal pizza.

  I ordered the swordfish and salmon and it was the greatest (and last) pizza I’d ever had in my life!  During lunch, we talked mainly about everything we had thus far seen in Sicily.  Discussing our favorite sites, everyone concurred that Taormina was in the lead and we were all excited about the other destinations still to come.

When the water served desert, I realized that I wouldn’t have room for all of it, so I offered some cake to Melissa, who had not ordered any.  As I reached my cake filled fork across the table, Carl became excited and hurriedly grabbed his camera for the photo-op.  This threw the four of us into fits of laughter, which in turn drew the attention of the rest of the restraint, including another large group of students from Central at a nearby table who had come in shortly after us.

  As soon as Melissa found the strength to control her amusement, Carl shot what appeared to be a nearly pornographic image of me feeding cake to Melissa across the table.  We planned to show the picture to Mikey as a joke when we got back.  The joke continued as we carried it further, taking pictures of me feeding Carl.

After lunch we had some free time to walk around and shop.  Of course due to the touristy nature of the town, the prices were way too steep for me, so we just did some window-shopping.  By the time we’d finished looking around at the shops, it was time to head back to the bus.

On the walk from the bus I found a tiny store with in a kilometer from Domus Mariae where six liters of water was only 35000 Lira (~$1.

75).  As soon as I was back in my room, I started getting ready to go out and experience more of the local nightlife.

After dinner a bunch of us went to The Atrium again where we played pool and tried to communicate with some of the locals.  Draft beers are sold in one-liter mugs, so Andy and I each took one of those.  Melissa then challenged me to chug it.  I was less than enthusiastic about swilling a liter of beer in one shot, but I was a college student on spring break in Italy and a cute girl had challenged my doubted prowess, so I had to step up.  With a few deep breaths and a little determination, I raised my full mug and poured it back.  Every drop of the cold, gaseous brew went straight to my stomach and then to my head and my audience was impressed.  I was dizzy almost instantly, but that had passed by the time my next beer arrived.